Affirmative action helps students thrive at universities across Brazil

Work colleges are providing an affordable path to obtaining degrees by requiring all students to work 15 hours a week in exchange for no tuition fees. The funding for the colleges comes from “a mixture of private donations, Pell Grants, and sustaining funding from hefty endowments.”

After Brooklyn's District 15 replaced selective admissions with a lottery system, economic segregation in sixth grade decreased by 55 percent and racial segregation decreased by 38 percent compared with the previous year. Though challenges remain in creating truly inclusive school cultures, parents and educators say community attitudes are shifting around what makes for a "good" or desirable school.

In Iraq, where unemployment is high for recent grads, students gravitate towards science and math degrees. But, a new program in peace-and-conflict resolution is the first and only of its kind in the country. It teaches students about peace-building. Close to 250 people have enrolled. "For many undergraduates in the new program at Duhok, that means working side by side to create a more inclusive society. “It’s important for people in our society to know how to deal with conflict.”

Delaware has been working to make sure that all college-ready graduates, regardless of socioeconomic status, make it to college. With financial reasons standing in the way of many qualified students, the state has worked on multiple levels to make this a possibility.

Schools that participate in a network called Schule ohne Rassismus – Schule mit Courage, which translates to School without Racism – School with Courage, incorporate lessons on anti-racism and discrimination into every facet of the curriculum, from hosting daylong workshop series to tasking students to produce films about bias or organizing field trips to cultural centers that highlight the experiences of minorities. The network includes more than 5,000 schools serving roughly 2.4 million students.

Some Czech communities have taken steps to desegregate their schools, bringing Roma children into majority-Czech schools and closing "special" schools that may provide a lower quality of support. While typically launched as a cost-saving measure, integration efforts have led to improved outcomes for Roma students, such as a larger number enrolling in high school, and have also improved relations between Czech and Roma residents.

The Yale Prison Education Initiative allows cohorts of 12 to 15 people to take credit-bearing college courses and earn a degree while incarcerated. The program now offers two-year associate’s degrees and four-year bachelor’s degrees in three different prisons across Connecticut.

Through the Inside-Out program, traditional college students and students who are incarcerated share the same classroom, coming together for quarter-long courses. All participants receive college credit and students from both groups say learning together helps them break down barriers and understand new perspectives.

The CCAMPIS program at Northern Illinois University provides essential support to student parents, including financial assistance for child care, to ease the burden of balancing academics and parenting. CCAMPIS also funds services like housing, transportation, food, and mental health support, fostering a community for student parents.

In an attempt to combat pandemic-era drops in enrollment, the City University of New York network sent personalized letters to seniors graduating from public high schools in the city and waived application fees for these students for the month of October. The network saw its number of applicants jump 386 percent compared to the same month last year.